Since starting in 1959, The Rotary Club of Eshowe (9270) has been making a huge difference in the rural communities surrounding Eshowe and throughout Zululand. Their projects have included the building and development of classrooms, skills centres, orphanages, sports facilities and lots more. The club is currently involved in a number of different projects and is always ready to welcome new members and sponsors on board.
The Rotary Club of Eshowe holds meetings at 6pm on Thursdays at The George Hotel, and anyone who is interested in attending meetings must please contact Graham Chennells on 060 665 8833.
What is Rotary?
Rotary is a global organisation of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocation, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Currently there are about 1.2 million Rotarians around the world, from over 32,000 clubs and 200 different countries and areas.
Projects
The club is currently involved in various projects, including the following:
Eshowe Community Action Group (ECAG) Project
Started in 1977 by Rotarians, The ECAG (Eshowe Community Action Group) has grown to a fully managed project providing funding for over 2900 classrooms in the rural Zululand areas of Kwa-Zulu Natal. More 150,000 children use these classrooms daily, and to date, some R250 million worth of classrooms and school facilities have been constructed. ECAG is in the process of providing sanitation and water to many schools through the Rotary International Matching grant project.
Cunina Zulu Village
The Cunina Zulu Village is a village which is dedicated in caring for orphan children in rural Zululand.
In April 2007 Cunina joined forces with The Rotary Club of Eshowe, District 9270 in acquiring 5 hectares of land from the Ngonyama Tribal Trust to build a village for orphans. Most of them being as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Mbongolwane Footbridge
This bridge was built by Eshowe Rotary Club to assist hundreds of scholars to get to school without having to swim across the Mbongolwane Wetlands every day. Over 400 people per day use this bridge to get to school and to the tribal authority. We need to do some repair work on this bridge. Any takers – we need R5000 to elongate it and do minor repairs?
Entenjane Primary School
This is a subsidized AIDS orphaned children & feeding scheme. Food is provided by the government but no facilities, pots, cookers or utensils. Through the interest of two of our visitors, John and Josie Keys, we have recently received a donation from a UK School, Paddock Wood Primary School, and the Rotary Club of Tunbridge Wells for R12000 to upgrade the cooking facilities. Aids has left many children destitute and help is needed to keep them at school.
Dictionaries
The Rotary Club of Des Moines USA has donated $2000 for the purchase of Dictionaries for the children at rural schools around Eshowe.
Tembimfundo Special School
Special needs children and Aids orphans are looked after at this school under rather difficult conditions. The staff are very dedicated and very committed. With sponsorship from Rotary Club of Blackpool/Brentwood a Becket/Hitchin Tilehouse/Winslow/Sogndal/Forde the Rotary Club of Eshowe has built two classrooms, a 25-bed girls boarding house, kitchen, laundry and staff quarters.
Jininindomyama Skills Centre
Our main purpose is the effective vocational training mainly of lower but also of mid-level manpower resources. We also have a provision for people who never participated in formal education or who have a low level of Academic proficiency.
Donate
The Rotary Club of Eshowe relies on outside donors and fund raising events to fund all of these humanitarian projects. If you would like donate to The Rotary Club of Eshowe, to a specific project, or to one of the other community-based upliftment projects please contact Graham Chennells at info@eshowe.com or on (+27) 60 665 8833.